Lyons High School Alumni Update - 11-01-08

I ask all of you to take an hour out of your busy schedule and listen to a speech by Ezra Taft Benson called Stand Up for Freedom. You can google it. It is an incredible speech about this wonderful country of ours and the dangers he foresaw about its future..

Just a few more days before the election; get out and vote for the person you believe will be the best leader for our country. It is a shame our country has become so divided.

Let's talk about high school stuff!

If you were in Lyons from the years approximately 1959 - 1964 the basketball coach was Bob Smith. He was so passionate about our hitting free throws that we had to be at the gym around 7:00 a.m. to shoot 100 free throws before school. Ralph Voss, Class of 1961 did some great work in finding this information for me. We had heard the story but here it is. The K-State Wildcats were 4-2 when they played 6-2 KU. A win would send the Cats back into the conference hunt. The coaches were Jack Gardner and Phog Allen They had both won 12 games against each other.
Kansas ( Manhattan ): KU delivered a fatal blow to K-State, defeating the Cats 80-78. The Hawks led for most of the game and held a 79-76 lead with less than a minute to play. The Cats Gary Bergen nailed a tip-in with 45 seconds to go, and when KU tried to stall, the Purple forced a turnover. With K-State down by one point, the Jayhawks Ken Buller fouled the Wildcats Bob Smith with just 10 seconds remaining. Kansas State fans were in hysterics as the sopohomore from Hope , Kansas went to the line. Smith missed the first free throw and then the second. The Jayhawks secured the rebound and scored a final point as KU's Dean Smith (became a great coach at North Carolina ) was fouled in the rebound scramble.

Thank you Ralph. I wish Ralph could have graduated with us, as he is a special person and I will always consider him a very good friend.

Our track coach was Larry Frisbie and he competed on the KU track team from 1953-1957. He ran the quarter mile. Coach was from Stafford . He was a very good track coach. At the Kansas State Indoor Track Meet, I begged to get out of the quarter because I had the fastest qualifying time in the low hurdles. Since we did not have a track I had never practiced over 100 yards in the hurdles and out doors they were 180 yards. I was always ahead or even for the first 80 - 100 yards and then they would fly by me and I might get a 4th or 5th place. Those were ribbons back then. Coach Frisbie told me to come back up in a little while and he would think about letting me out of the quarter. I waited awhile and went back up just certain he was going to let me out of the quarter and to my astonishment he told me not only was I going to run the quarter, I was going to win a first place medal. I'm not sure if I told him he was crazy but if not it definitely went thru my mind. The reason I wanted out of the quarter was that the next race after the quarter was the low hurdles. There was no way I could run both. Coach said the runners and there coaches haven't competed indoors. He said the curves are very tight and you have to run them differently. He said let's go down to the track and I will show you how to run the curves. I still wasn't really convinced because these were the best runners in the state and I knew most of them by the back of their heads because that is where I usually was. There was a group of us in the state that at the finish line we would be bunched but I was at the back of the bunch pretty consistently. He told me what to do and not only did I win the race I set a state record and it was all because of coach Frisbie. He was really tough on me a few times but I thought he was a great coach and person and I miss him.

Statements made in 1955:
"It's too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where married women are having to work to make ends meet."
"Did you see where some baseball player just signed for $75,000 a year just to play ball. It wouldn't surprise me if some day they will make more than the president."
"Thank goodness I won't live to see the day when the government takes half our income in taxes. I sometimes wonder if we are electing the best people."
"The drive-in restaurant is convenient in bad weather but I seriously doubt whether they will ever catch on."

Do any of you have alumni you would like to contact or maybe just wondering what may have happened to certain alumni. Wasn't their an alum in the class of 1960 named Gary Smith. He was a good looking guy that always had a smile on his face. He was a pretty good athlete too. Let me know if you have alumni you have lost contact with. When we get the list up on the website we will be able to go in and see if alumni have registered. Webmaster is still working on that aspect of the website.

Lyons Daily News Aug. 1st 2005: In the good old days - 50 years ago 1955
4-H Tour and Display. The Lyons Conquerors 4-H Club held a project tour Sat. morning and a food and clothing display and demonstration on making muffins by Myrna Darling at the Floyd Jung home. Following the tour and demonstration the group had a swimming party.
The projects shown on the tour were Duroc hogs, room improvement and woodworking, Mike Stewart; Duroc, Berkshire, and Yorkshire hogs, chickens, and Ponca wheat, Keith & Art Johnson; colt and Angus deferred steers, Duroc pigs, Pawnee wheat and yellow buff Bantam chickens, Junior Clarke; Southdown fat lamb and Duroc pigs, Alma Smith; Angus heifer and milo, David Keller; Shorthorn heifers, Vernon Soeken; Sky-hi chickens, Roy McKinnis; foods, rabbits, and Duroc pigs, Paula Jung; clothing, foods and Duroc pigs, Sharon Jung; Milking Shorthorn, Johnnie Cook; Milking Shorthorn Lila Cook; rabbits and Milking Shorthorn, Gary Cook; rabbits and Milking Shorthorn Margaret Cook; Bantam chickens, Barbara Keesling; room improvement, Glenda Reed; Shorthorn cows, Herbert & Harvey Monroe; steers Jack England and potatoes, Fred England.

We lost another valued alumni. Ronnie Wilcox, Class of 1965, I believe. Ronnie had lived in Chase since 1967 and at one time was Mayor and served on the city council. He was a retired oilfield superintendent. He will be missed and our prayers go out to the family.
Sax Drake Class of 1961